Deep Inside Final Fantasy X-2

Share.

Yuna wears pink panties. Come see for yourself inside.

By IGN Staff

Yuna fan club members (you know who you are) take note. Your favorite Final Fantasy heroine wears pink panties. Her commrades, Rikku and Paine wear, respectively, yellow and gray/white undergarments. More on this exciting new revelation, below.

We've played through over fifteen hours of Final Fantasy X-2 as of this writing and have apparently gotten through about 30% of the story. How did we arrive at that percentage? The game actually reports your progress through the story in percentage form when you save. This apparently puts us in level 3 of the multi-leveled story.

Not that this 30% means we have 70% left before seeing the credits roll. It's possible to pass Final Fantasy X-2 without getting 100% of the story. In fact, once you've passed the game, you're given a new option to replay the game with all items left in your possession so that you can experience all the branching paths without the tedium of having to rebuild your characters from scratch.

Yes, this game is very different from other Final Fantasy titles.

It's so different, in fact, that if you're expecting anything like a full FF game complete with a complex storyline and pricey computer graphics, you'll probably be disappointed. But anyone who wants to try something a bit different from the norm, or those who played Final Fantasy X and have an open mind, will likely have a ball, just like we're having right now.

YUNA'S ANGELS In our initial impressions story from last week, we mentioned that the game is full of humor, as one might have guessed given that it starts off with a dance video. The humor continues throughout, with further dance numbers down the road and comical moments aplenty. In addition to the crew members of Yuna's ship, who are always good for a laugh, the comical villains encountered in the early moments of the game play a big roll throughout.

Yuna's trio itself adds a good deal of flare to the game. The three heroines are obviously a gaming version of Charlie's Angels. Prepare for high-fives camera poses, giggling, and even a sequence that takes place in a hot spring and features the girls in their underwear (we're actually pretty sure they're wearing bathing suits, but why in the world would they carry their bathing suits with them?). We've included some clips in the movie section at the bottom of the next page so you can see for yourself just what this madness is all about.

We're of course not complaining about the humor. Considering that the game is targeted towards those who played the original, it makes sense that it should be a little light hearted compared to the often heavy material of its predecessor.

ACTIVE LINK In addition to its loose take on story, the structure of the game itself is entirely different from other games in the series. You start off the game on your airship and can go about the world at your will. Most of the game progresses by your speaking to the ship's navigator, who opens up a map of the world. You can select an area of the world to head off to, and are free to go just about everywhere from the start.

The only guidance the game gives you in progression is through this map. Each area is given a description, with some suggesting that by exploring the area you may be able to solve a miniquest. Others, marked with an "Active Link" icon, are more directly related to the story. If you want to continue with the story, you'll have to go to these areas.

Selecting your next location

While the game will occasionally force you to go to a particular Active Link section, for the most part you're free to move about at your own pace. Want to visit an area of the game that you remember being particularly pretty? Just head down there and play around, fighting enemies and taking in the nostalgic visuals. All areas seem to have multiple mini-quest waiting to be solved, from helping a girl catch a Chocobo all the way to reliving the opening moments of the game from the perspective of a different character. Solving mini quests is one way to get some otherwise hard-to-find items, and is one of the most enjoyable parts of the game, so much so that if you find yourself running through the story sequences as fast as possible, you're missing out.

Even when following the storyline, things aren't completely linear. Whereas FFX dabbled just a bit with different story paths, FFX-2 takes it to a new level. The game offers up some key branching points, which seem to affect the plot considerably. If you're interested in seeing everything, you'll have to replay the game (which, as mentioned above, is made easy thanks to the replay option given to you once you've passed the game for the first time).

Whether following the story line or taking on sidequests, FFX-2 splits things up into missions. A quest or major part of the story begins with a "Mission Start" screen, followed by instructions on what you need to do in order to complete the mission. Don't be scared off though, FF-fans. The "Mission" thing is there in just name and fancy start-up screen alone. Square could've done without labeling the quests as missions and no one would've been the wiser. We like the addition, though, as the "Mission Start" screen fits the overall quirky nature of the game quite well.